Helen Prince declines comment as she leaves Warren County Family Court following a custody hearing Wednesday afternoon. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Helen Prince declines comment as she leaves Warren County Family Court following a custody hearing Wednesday afternoon. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Johnny Smith, and his wife Cheryl Smith, from Conway, S.C., speak to reporters following a custody hearing in Warren County Family Court Wednesday, Oct. 27. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Johnny Smith, and his wife Cheryl Smith, from Conway, S.C., speak to reporters following a custody hearing in Warren County Family Court Wednesday, Oct. 27. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

Image 3 of 3

Father: Wait drags on for daughter

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LAKE GEORGE -- Johnny Smith became separated from his then-3-year-old daughter in March 2008. Then he learned of allegations she had been beaten, abused and sexually assaulted.

He learned details over time, starting with a call he received while at work in South Carolina, where he lives. Over the next two years, Smith waged a legal battle in two states to gain custody of the child, who had been allegedly abused while in the company of two young sons of her mother's live-in boyfriend in Warren County.

It was that battle that brought Smith to Warren County Family Court on Wednesday when a judge adjourned a hearing to Friday -- but not before it became evident Smith would finally gain custody of his daughter, now 5 and in foster care.

Neither the child's mother, attorney for the girl nor a Warren County attorney expressed opposition.

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But for Smith, 36, an agonizing question remains -- when?

"I'm happy with it, but I'm skeptical something is going to fall through the cracks again ," Smith said after the hearing. "It's been two years and whenever I come up, they find something to prolong it ... it has just been a living hell for me."

His daughter's ordeal came to light when the child's mother, then-33-year Helen Prince, was charged with child endangerment. On July 19, 2008, the girl was found on Route 9 outside a Queensbury motel where she'd been staying. Police said the woman had left her daughter in the care of two boys, ages 15 and 12, every day for a week.

The abuse inflicted on the child led to injuries that included broken bones, hemorrhages in her eyes, places where hair had been pulled out and bruising from sexual assaults, according to the Sun-News newspaper Myrtle Beach, S.C., which has reported extensively on the case. The disposition of the charges against the 15-year-old were not immediately available.

Neither Prince nor her attorney commented when approached by the Times Union Wednesday

Smith said the girl's mother, his former common-law wife, took the child away in March 2009 to live with her boyfriend down South. He said the two later moved to Warren County to be closer to the boyfriend's Vermont family.

Despite allegations that later surfaced, Smith could not gain custody of his child. He said that was largely due to the federal Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, which handles such cases when more than one state is involved. Smith, who does building restoration work, was at one point unemployed. He said the interstate compact deemed him "financially fragile" in findings he contends included a multitude of inaccuracies.

In the meantime, he was without his daughter. He said he has since made the 850-mile, 15-hour trip every six months to attend hearings to win custody of the child.

On Wednesday his Schenectady-based attorney, Mark Gaylord, told Family Court Judge J. Timothy Breen that his client has already made arrangements with a rape crisis center in Conway, S.C. and has enrolled the child for counseling. Smith said he is ready for the child to begin school Monday in South Carolina.

The mother's attorney, Nellie R. Halloran, expressed no opposition to Smith having custody. H. Bartlett McGee, an attorney for Warren County Social Services, also told the judge he did not oppose the girl going to Smith. But the mother's lawyer said her client consented to the father's custody "with terms," an indication the mother would want visiting rights. And McGee said the transition for the girl, who is therapy in New York, should not be abrupt. He told the judge his agency was simply following the law in the legal process, despite media coverage he considered critical.

"I'm not here to debate the press," the judge told him.

Breen decided to adjourn his official decision until Friday. And so Smith, who made the trip with his new wife Cheryl and other relatives, continues to wait. In South Carolina, Smith and his wife live with children ages 14, 15 and 17.

He said he would be happy to allow his daughter's foster family to visit with the child. He met with his girl Tuesday in a Warren County office, the foster family present. At the meeting, his daughter -- who knows him as "Johnny" -- said at one point about the Smiths, "These are not my family."

Smith said he was crushed by his girl's words. "Who am I then?" he asked. "I'm kind of tired of being left out. Until I get an exact date and got her in my hands, I still have that unusual feeling that something is going to be left out, something is going to be forgotten."